Corbett touts "regulatory flexibility" law

Gov. Corbett was in Lebanon yesterday, touting the law he signed in late June to make state agencies the ones to jump through hoops when new regulations are created.

After his brief tour of a manufacturing facility, machines powered down as Corbett outlined new ground rules for state regulators. Under the law now in effect, they’ll have to embark on a more thorough exploration of how regulations in the larval stage could one day be a plague on small businesses.

“An agency must identify just what types of small businesses may feel the effects of a regulation,” said Corbett. “They need to tell us how much it’s going to cost small business to comply with regulation and what kinds of record-keeping and administrative costs they will confront.” He said the law puts the onus on state regulators, as opposed to the businesses who have to comply with their rules.

The legislation has been stopped twice before by former Gov. Ed Rendell, who argued it put too much onus on state agencies. Corbett said that illustrates a backwards approach to governing.

“Government is happy to burden business, but don’t burden government, is what that says. That says about all you need to hear about the culture of government,” said Gov. Corbett.

But the bill that made it to his desk this year isn’t an exact carbon copy of the bills vetoed in the past. Those previous versions would have allowed small businesses up to a year and a half to seek judicial review of regulations they claimed to be too intrusive and costly. The provision was deleted from the measure the governor signed.

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